KF Aerospace appeared to be in trouble a few years ago when it lost some lucrative contracts and, in turn, more than 100 employees.
Now the Kelowna company含羞草研究社檚 star is back on the rise with a series of new contracts lined-up, allowing for a bit of a hiring spree.
The company signed a contract with Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. , which developed the engineering rights and modification packages to convert a passenger aircraft into a cargo aircraft.
KF is now licensed to install these cargo doors into B737-400, B737-800, MD80, and CRJ aircraft on AEI含羞草研究社檚 behalf. In conjunction with that contract, KF Aerospace signed a customer 含羞草研究社擵x Capital 含羞草研究社� that provides them with the opportunity to convert up to 19 B737含羞草研究社檚 they own to from passenger to cargo configuration over the next three years.
含羞草研究社淓ven better, we still have a few other announcements pending over the next few weeks 含羞草研究社� all good news,含羞草研究社� said Grant Stevens, KF Aerospace含羞草研究社檚 director of human resources.
All of these new contracts will mean more jobs.
Staffing wise we are back well over 800 employees nationally, and currently looking to fill about 90 positions across Canada. Kelowna has over 575 staff now, and will reach about 650 by end of summer.
含羞草研究社淥ur Hangar expansion remains on track for July 1,含羞草研究社� he said.
It含羞草研究社檚 still not quite as many employees as they previous to 2015 when the company lost its contract to be Purolator Courier含羞草研究社檚 mainline operations and Canada Post mail service. The two were estimated to be worth upwards of $1 billion.
At that time, KF Aerospace employed 1,000 and that number included pilots and others on the flight operations side of the business.
It is remarkable growth, and it comes from a concerted effort to grow the maintenance side of the business while the flight operations side went into a period of retraction.
含羞草研究社淚 think there are a couple things that happened for KF. We含羞草研究社檝e been recognized within the industry for many years for having very good quality work and that含羞草研究社檚 because of the outstanding employees who work for us,含羞草研究社� he said. 含羞草研究社淟ike any industry, people talk about (good work), and that含羞草研究社檚 enabled us to grow the business from a maintenance perspective even though the marketplace is a bit smaller.含羞草研究社�
The other reason for growth is being attributed to an adjustment to their business plan.
含羞草研究社淲e had some challenges in 2015 when we lost Purolator,含羞草研究社� said Stevens.
含羞草研究社淲e knew then that maintenance was going to be a larger part of our business so we thought , 含羞草研究社榳hat can we do to make it more successful?含羞草研究社櫤卟菅芯可鐫
The company put together a business development group, assigned people within that group to work with existing customers and to generate additional longer-term business opportunities and invested in training. That created the space for new growth.
All in all, Stevens said they含羞草研究社檝e 含羞草研究社済rown better than expected.含羞草研究社�
